Reconsidering Kant’s Copernican Revolution: From Synthetic A Priori Knowledge to the Metaphysical Status of the Noumenon

• Öztürk, Burak ^[1]
  1. [1] Boğaziçi University

     Boğaziçi University

     Turquía

     
• Localización: Con-textos Kantianos: International Journal of Philosophy, ISSN-e 2386-7655, Vol. 23, 2026, págs. 117-126
• Idioma: inglés
• DOI: 10.5209/kant.106962
• Enlaces
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• Resumen

  • This paper critically examines Michael J. Olson’s interpretation of Kant’s Copernican Revolution as a transformation of the object of metaphysics into synthetic a priori knowledge with a twofold structure. While granting Olson’s insight that the Copernican Revolution is not merely a perspectival reversal but a substantive reconfiguration of metaphysics modeled on the methodological revolutions in mathematics and physics, I argue that his account remains incomplete. In particular, Olson’s interpretation risks reducing Kant’s critical project to an epistemological enterprise. By focusing on Kant’s phenomenon–noumenon distinction, I show that transcendental idealism involves unavoidable metaphysical commitments that cannot be captured solely in terms of synthetic a priori knowledge. Although noumena are not objects of knowledge, they function as necessary limiting concepts and as the metaphysical ground of appearances. Consequently, Kant’s Copernican Revolution should be understood as a rearticulation rather than a replacement of metaphysics.

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